


Libraries, Quidditch and Detentions

by DutchInsanity



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Hogwarts, Quidditch, The Marauders - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 03:13:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8516290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DutchInsanity/pseuds/DutchInsanity





	

Y/N and Remus were studying together for their history of magic O.W.L in the library and they weren't alone. It may still be nearly a month until exams but the library was already filling up with fifth years who occupied in every chair in the place, some had even taken up camp in the middle of the floor with pillows and blankets and everything.  
The library was full of the sounds of pages turning, quills scratching against parchment and the occasional outburst from a student who was failing to understand what they were supposed to study. Y/N was pretty sure some sixth years had made some galleons selling 'brainpower snack boxes' and 'thought enhancing remedies' to these poor desperate souls.  
But she wasn't ready to judge, if it wasn't for Remus she would probably be one of those desperate souls selling their life for a bottle of brain power.  
"That literally makes no sense." Y/N stated, her Y/E/C eyes fixed on her close friend. "Like, at all."  
"It makes perfect sense, Y/N." Remus sighed, shaking his head slightly in amusement.  
"But how!?" She cried in frustration.  
Remus, somehow remaining calm in the stressful atmosphere that seemed to hang around every single fifth year student at Hogwarts, patiently explained the parts that Y/N was struggling with.  
Almost an hour later and the crease between Y/N's eyebrows had vanished and she was grinning happily, eyes lit up the way they always were when she'd accomplished something. "I get it now! Thank you so much Rems." The Y/H/C haired girl threw her arms around the boy. "You should take over from Binns, people might actually stay awake for an entire lesson for once." She chuckled and poked Remus' cheeks when a blush crept up on him.  
"MOONY!" A voice called through the library, immediately followed by the hushings and the stern voice of Ms Pince telling the owner of the voice to "Be quiet or I'll drag you from my library by the ear."  
"I take it your friends have found you." Y/N chuckled, slightly amazed that they'd been uninterrupted for so long.  
"Not yet, maybe they'll bugger off. We haven't even gotten started on the Goblin Rebellions." Remus sighed, getting up to put away the book on Giant wars.  
Y/N cleared up her notes and pulled out a fresh piece of parchment, playing absentmindedly with her quill while she awaited her friend's return.  
When he did reappear, a large volume tucked under his arm, he wasn't alone.  
James Potter seemed to have been the one to call for him and was now following the poor lad, hounding him for something no doubt. Y/N gritted her teeth, why did it have to be him. Any of the other Marauders she could have dealt with; Peter with his quiet nature was easy to get along with. Black, although he was a horrid flirt, could often be great company. But James freaking Potter was, without a doubt, the most irritating, big headed arse to walk the halls of Hogwarts.  
And the feeling was mutual, because as soon as Remus had returned to his seat and James had noticed Y/N's presence the energetic grin faded from his lips, replaced by a flat look of annoyance.  
"James."  
"Y/N."  
"Can we help you with something?"  
"You can't, my friend can." James said dismissively and turned his full attention to Remus. "Moony, I need your help with something."  
"Yes Prongs?" Remus smiled in his usual sweet and patient manner.  
"Word is Ravenclaw have a new seeker but no one from the team is saying who. I figured, seeing as you obviously have connections in Ravenclaw," James shot a quick, accusatory glance at Y/N as if it was her fault his friend was talking to people outside his own house. "Maybe you can do some digging and find out for me before the match this weekend. Pads and I have a little…. Initiation planned for him."  
"What makes you think it's a him?" Y/N interjected, eyebrow raised as she glared at James.  
"Hah, yeah, that's cute Y/N. Hilarious, really."  
"Excuse you? What's so funny about a girl being on the Quidditch team?"  
"Girls don’t know how to play Quidditch! They don't even know the rules!"  
Y/N's eyes narrowed angrily. "Rule 1. Players may not cross the boundary lines of the pitch but are permitted to fly as high as they want. The Quaffle must be turned over to the opposing team if a member of said team breaks this rule. Rule 2. Time out can be called by the team captain and can be as long as two hours only if the match has gone for more than twelve hours. Rule 3. Penalties are taken by a single chaser flying from the central circle toward the scoring area. Only the Keeper may try to prevent a penalty shot. Shall I continue or are you satisfied."  
"Impressive, and where did you read that, little miss bookworm?" James snickered and Remus looked apologetic.  
"Prongs, leave her alone."  
James rolled his eyes but obliged. "So will you help me?" He asked Remus impatiently.  
"Mate, you just offended my only Ravenclaw friend who's actually on the team." Remus chuckled and started reading his book. "Ask her yourself." He added with a sneaky smile.  
James' head turned to Y/N so fast it surprised her that he didn't get whiplash. "You're on Ravenclaw's team?"  
"Don't sound so surprised." Y/N spat, beginning to pack away her things. It was obvious she wasn't going to get much more studying done now.  
"B-but… Since when!?" James spluttered, disbelief written all over his face.  
"Rems, I'll see you later yeah?" Y/N, ignoring James, addressed her friend who nodded distractedly, eyes skimming the pages of the book.  
"Yeah, laters love." He murmured, not fully aware of his surroundings.  
_______________________

"Moony, c'mon you know her! Just ask her who the new seeker is." James begged his friend, who was finding it increasingly more difficult to enjoy his dinner what with James flicking peas at him and whining every few minutes.  
"What's this?" Sirius, having just finished a detention with Peter, plopped into the empty spot beside James and started piling food onto his plate whilst listening to his friend.  
"Moony knows someone on the Ravenclaw team but he won't help me find out who the seeker is." James pouted as Peter squeaked a hello and took his usual seat on Remus' side.  
"Who?"  
"Y/N freaking Y/L/N." James groaned. "Who could believe it right? That bookworm being on any kind of sport team." His eye flickered over to the Ravenclaw table briefly and found her. Hair windswept, mud spattered, her nose and cheeks red from the cold icy winds outside. She'd just come back from Quidditch practice, there was no other explanation for her appearance.  
Which meant the new seeker would have been there too! James stood up in his seat, knocking the table and disturbing a goblet of pumpkin juice, and scanned the Ravenclaw table for all the students who looked like they'd just come inside from the cold weather.  
"Prongs? Prongs!"  
"What?!" James snapped, eyes falling to Sirius who looked amusedly up at him.  
"You're obsessed mate. Just go ask her yourself."  
"I can't." James sulked, sitting down hard on the bench and pouting. He wasn't used to not getting his way. "She hates everything about me." His arms folded on the table and he buried his head in them.  
Sirius threw his head back and let out a loud laugh. "I can't tell what's upsetting you more, the fact that you don't know who the new seeker is or the fact that Y/N doesn't like you."  
James' head snapped up indignantly. "Shove off! I don't give a rat's arse about Y/N's emotions. No offense Wormtail. I want to know who that damn seeker is so I can figure out the best way to beat him!"  
"Prongs, you really can be so thick sometimes." Remus said with a laugh and continued with his dinner, a sly smile playing on his lips.  
"GODRIC, HE KNOWS WHO THE SEEKER IS!" James screeched, drawing the attention of everyone around him.  
"Mate, calm down or you're gonna go grey before you're 19." Sirius said jokingly.  
"Do you? Know who the seeker is?" Peter asked Remus.  
"Obviously." He replied in a 'duh' tone.  
"Why would you say that?" Sirius sighed, glancing at James nervously. The boy was practically shaking in anticipation, a wild gleam in his hazel eyes as he waited expectantly for Remus to share the news.  
"I'm not telling you."  
James froze. "Why not?" He whined.  
"Because I promised not to."  
"So? Friends don't keep secrets!"  
"Friends keep promises."  
"You promised to help me find out who the new seeker was!"  
"You asked, I never made any such promise."  
"I think this is the first meal we've had where Prongs hasn't looked at Evans once." Peter snickered, watching as the redhead left the hall, unnoticed by James.  
This comment, somehow, went unheard by the Potter boy as he sunk down in his seat and resumed his former position of burying his face in his arms. "Life is so unfair." He mumbled, much to the amusement of his friends. "Y/N is somehow a respected member of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Remus is keeping secrets from us. Lads, it's the bloody apocalypse I swear."  
Sirius patted James on the shoulder before ignoring his friend completely and chatting away with the other boys at the table. The three of them were used to James' bouts of moping when he didn’t get his way and decided the best way to deal with it was to simply ignore the problem.  
______________________

The week passed by agonizingly slow for James' liking and it was spent with him constantly jumping Remus with questions about the Ravenclaw seeker in an attempt to catch him off guard.  
But he was annoyingly stubborn, wouldn't let any information slip.  
No one knew who the seeker was, Ravenclaw's team had somehow managed to keep it a secret for the entire week, it seemed like Remus was the only non-Ravenclaw who knew the big secret. James and Sirius had snuck down to the pitch under cover of the invisibility cloak a few times to watch the practice but they hadn't caught sight of any new players.  
Friday dragged on slowly until it was the night before the match and the four Marauders were sprawled out on their favorite couches in the deserted Gryffindor common room with bottles of fire whiskey each. It was tradition to get James drunk the night before a match or he would never get any sleep what with his mess of nerves and excitement.  
"I jus- I don see why you can't t-tell me." James bumbled, hiccupping slightly in his intoxicated state and stretching out in his armchair, swinging his legs over the armrest and head lolling over the other side.  
"Even if I told you now I'm not so sure you'd remember it." Remus said in amusement, watching James attempt to take another sip of his drink and end up pouring half of what was left on his face.  
He blinked in confusion as Sirius fell off his couch in fits of loud drunken laughter. Peter, the most sober one of them all, rolled over on the floor to face Remus. His feet swinging wildly in the air as he rested on his front, cupping his chin in his palms and looking up at the boy.  
"Hey Moony, I've been thinking…. About who the seeker is."  
"Mmmm?"  
"Is it-"  
"SHHHHHHHHH! Don't tell Prongs." Sirius snickered, crawling back onto his couch and slopping some of his drink onto the floor.  
Peter got up and loudly whispered something into Remus' ear which Sirius, being seated beside Remus, managed to hear.  
"NO! THERE IS NO WAY IT'S-"  
"Yes, it is." Remus interrupted Sirius' rant.  
"Holy…"  
"I knew it." Peter grinned triumphantly.  
"Ok n-now you guys are just being mmmean."  
"Oh hush up Prongsie." Sirius snickered and downed the rest of his firewhiskey. "You'll find out in the morning."  
_____________________

"Can you tell me now?" James begged his friends as they walked down to the pitch. Three out of four of the Marauders were in their usual Gryffindor robes and the other was in his scarlet red Quidditch gear.  
"You're going to find out in exactly twelve minutes." Peter pointed out.  
"That's twelve minutes of not knowing!"  
"You've survived an entire week, you can go a bit longer." Remus reasoned.  
The group split up when James left them to go to the Gryffindor change room where the rest of his team was, all of them in an uproar about Ravenclaw's new seeker.  
"Who is it? Did anyone get a look at Ravenclaw's team?"  
"Potter! Did you find out who the seeker is?"  
James glowered and said that he had no clue who the seeker was.  
"The match starts soon so I guess we'll find out on the pitch. We've practiced for this, it doesn't matter who their seeker is, we're still going to destroy them!" The captain's voice sounded loud and clear, soothing the team's worries.  
The captain, Royce King, was part Veela, which helped when he was named captain. James would be lying if he said he wasn't jealous of the attention Royce got so effortlessly but he couldn’t deny that the guy was a phenomenal chaser.  
The team grabbed their broomsticks and headed out onto the pitch. The Ravenclaw team was already out there and in the place where the seeker should be….  
"No… You're kidding me." James exclaimed. "Y/N freaking Y/L/N?!" And in that moment, James finally understood every single one of the subtle hints Remus had been dropping all week. Finally understood how much of an idiot he really was.  
Of course it was her.  
______________________

"Twenty minutes into the match and this is the fourth time James Potter has crashed into another player. Folks I think it's safe to say that Gryffindor's golden boy is turning silver after this performance." The commentator's voice boomed across the pitch  
Y/N smiled to herself, eyes scanning the pitch for 'Gryffindor's golden boy' and spotted him across the field looking dazed, as if he couldn't quite figure something out.  
A very distinctive difference from his usual attitude on the field. "Who knew I could have this kind of effect on you, Potter." Y/N called as she flew past him.  
"Shove o-" His words were cut off with a low grunt of pain.  
"AND POTTER IS KNOCKED OFF HIS BROOM BY A WELL AIMED BLUDGER FROM RAVENCLAW'S BEATER! NICE SHOT HUDGENS!"  
Y/N spun her broom around and dove after James without a second thought. She reached out her hand and grabbed his, slowing their descent until they simply floated to the ground.  
The second James' feet touched solid ground he released Y/N's hand and stumbled away from her. "Don't do that!" He said angrily.  
"Do what? Save your life? Are you too proud to admit that you were saved by a girl?" And before he could form any kind of response Y/N kicked off the ground and flew back into the game.  
"I'll show you 'too proud'. Accio broomstick!" The fallen broom flew into his outstretched hand and he was off, this time flying with a newfound determination.  
"James Potter is back in action! It seems like all Potter needed was a good life threatening situation to find his talent and boy is he using it! King passes the Quaffle to Potter who- OH MY GODRIC WHAT A PERFECT GOAL! POTTER IS BACK PEOPLE!"  
Y/N listened to the match play-by-play while she scanned the pitch for any sign of the gold flash that came with the snitch. And there it was, flitting past the Gryffindor goals.  
The Gryffindor seeker was watching Y/N closely so she didn't let on that she'd found the snitch. Instead she began a straight downward dive.  
"IT LOOKS LIKE Y/N HAS SEEN THE GOLDEN SNITCH AND PATRICK IS HOT ON HER TAIL!"  
The ground flew toward the girl, closer by the second. At the last minute she pulled up and shot along the grass toward where she could still see the snitch still flittering about. A crash and a scream signified that Patrick had hit the ground, hard. "MERLIN'S BEARD, Y/N PULLS OFF A PERFECT WRONSKI FEINT AND, IS THAT? IT IS! SHE HAS CAUGHT THE GOLDEN SNITCH! THE MATCH IS OVER! RAVENCLAW WINS 230 TO 90!"  
______________________

"I hate her." James growled, his hand clutching his broomstick so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. The other Marauders were trailing behind their leader, silently laughing, as he stormed back up to the castle in a rage. "Gryffindor hasn’t lost a match since I joined the team. And now this…. Bookworm is somehow allowed to play and the entire order of things is lost."  
"You mean the order where you always come out on top?" Peter asked with a knowing smile between him and the other boys.  
"YES!"  
"I think Y/N was allowed to play because she's good." Sirius remarked, thoroughly enjoying his friend's distress.  
"That… was not good that was luck." His voice raised a few octaves higher than his normal tone. "Pure. Beginners. Luck." He muttered, walking faster when he entered the castle and leaving his friends staring after him.  
______________________

Three days later found James Potter roaming the night darkened halls of Hogwarts under the safety of his invisibility cloak. He usually preferred to leave his studying to the unnoticed hours so he could be alone but recently he'd taken to doing nearly everything after hours. Everywhere he went people were talking about the 'incredible' match on Saturday and how Y/N had pulled off the perfect Wronski Feint on her incredibly lax school issued broomstick.  
James was sick of it. Every time he saw her she was practically glowing from the praise and the attention. Remus had chalked it down to jealousy and ignored any other conversation about his new BFF.  
Sirius and Peter had suggested humiliating her with a surprise hex to turn her teeth blue 'In honor of Ravenclaw spirit' as Sirius had put it but James wanted nothing more than to ignore her very existence.  
Something that proved to be very difficult, she was EVERYWHERE.  
Even, it seemed, in the very back corner of the library where James had intended to hide in at the dead of night.  
There she lay, sprawled out on a pile of pillows, reading a thick book by wandlight.  
"Are you serious!" James snapped, forgetting that she couldn't see him.  
"Stupefy!" The spell hit its mark and sent James crashing into the wall and the cloak sliding to the floor.  
"BLOODY HELL! STOP ATTACKING ME!"  
"Oh Merlin I am so sorry!" Y/N rushed over to him and tried to help him up only to be shoved back.  
"And stop helping me!" The girl stood back and watched him struggle to his feet, wincing each time he did.  
"I'm really sorry, you just came out of nowhere and I'm usually alone when I come here and I couldn't see you so it was like a reflex in case you had bad intentions and I am so, so sorry." Y/N rambled on, fading to a whisper when she noticed the dirty look he was giving her.  
"If I didn't come here with bad intentions I certainly have them now." He spat, moving to pick up his cloak and wincing again in pain.  
"Godric I really hurt you didn't I?" Y/N watched his progress, regret written all over her face.  
"No. I'm fine." James stated, too prideful to admit how much pain he was really in but Y/N was having none of it.  
"You're lying, come sit down until you feel better." She helped him over to her pile of pillows and settled him in carefully, ignoring his poorly attempted refusals. "Are you badly hurt? Do you want me to get a healer? Or I could do it I know a few spells, I've never actually tested them but I'm sure I could get it right I've read the theory a thousand times a-"  
"I'm fine." James snapped, he was oddly enjoying her fussing over him. Something he would never admit…  
The pair fell into a silence that seemed to press down on them, James could see that Y/N was dying to say something to fill the quiet.  
"What are you reading?" He asked, forcing his voice to sound calm instead of the constant irritated tone that he only seemed to need around this girl.  
"Nothing." She said quickly, sliding the book out of James' reach.  
James reached for his wand. "Acc-" Y/N's hands flew to cover his mouth, accidentally punching him in the face.  
"OW!"  
"I'M SORRY! I just, do you even realize how stupid that spell would have been? You were going to summon a book you don't know the name of in a library. Can you imagine the disaster that would cause?"  
James opened his mouth to argue but the words just wouldn’t come to him. YN seemed to interpret his silence as anger. That or the girl really couldn't stand being quiet.  
"Look, I'm sorry for injuring you… twice… in one evening…"  
"You say sorry a lot."  
"I just punched you in the face, would you prefer if I wasn't apologetic?" Y/N asked, eyebrow cocked in amusement.  
Again, James failed to form any kind of coherent sentence, his mind seemed to blank when he looked into those Y/E/C eyes. How could one girl do that to him?  
Slowly, James leaned toward Y/N who seemed to have lost her ability to move. His fingers running along the floor for…. Got it!  
He whipped the book from behind Y/N and held it out of reach as she tried to grab for it. "James! James give it back!"  
"Not until you tell me why you're reading.." He paused when he tried to read the title of the book, an opportunity for Y/N to snatch the book from his hands and hold it securely against her chest, glaring at him as if daring the boy to try and steal her book again. "That's from the restricted section, no wonder you're reading it in the middle of the night." He laughed and dodged Y/N's attempt to clobber him over the head with the thick volume.  
"You mustn't tell!"  
"What's there to tell, goody two shoes Y/N has been breaking the rules every night so she can read. What a joke, leave it to you to risk expulsion for a damn book." James said amid his constant giggles, Y/N tried to look angry which lasted for only a few seconds before her own musical laughter joined his. It occurred to James that it was the first time he'd made her laugh, and even worse, he was actually enjoying her company.  
Boring old bookworm, Y/N was proving to be more exciting than she let on.  
"Promise you won't tell anyone?" Y/N asked when she'd stopped giggling like a small child. "It's just, there are so many books in the restricted section and I figured out how to bypass the security charms in fourth year so I've been sneaking down a few nights a week to read because what's the point of books if they aren't being read, they aren't made to just stand there for decades gathering dust an-"  
"Do you ever stop talking?" James asked, slightly humored by her ramblings.  
"Sorry." She squeaked. "I've done it my whole life but only ever when I'm stressed or nervous and I'm doing it again sorry."  
"So you're saying I make you nervous?" James smirked, mentally high-fiving himself when she blushed.  
"I mean I did just stun you and you've caught me reading a book from the restricted section, you have every right to report me."  
"Reporting you would lead to a lot of questions, like what the two of us were doing in the library alone in the middle of the night."  
"Anything you're thinking right now would definitely not end with me stunning you." She laughed, settling herself down beside James and picking up her book, opening onto the page she'd left off.  
"How would it end?"  
Her eyes flicked up to meet his briefly before going back to her book. "Wouldn't you like to know." She smirked.  
James slid the book from her lap. "Maybe I would." He whispered, thoroughly enjoying the effect his words had on the girl as she visibly shivered before gathering up her things and speaking rapidly again.  
"You know it's getting really late and I-" James grabbed Y/N's wrist as she was about to stand, pulling her back down beside him and grabbing her chin gently so that she faced him, effectively cutting off her ramblings by kissing her.  
The moment their lips connected James felt as if he'd left his body behind and he floated in and out of this newfound euphoria that came with kissing Y/N. The feeling of her lips moving against his could only be described as every single great moment of his life all compiled into one touch.  
His hand moved up to tangle itself in her soft hair, wanting nothing more than to feel her against him.  
Then it was over, far too soon, as Y/N pulled away from their embrace. Her eyes were widened in shock. She squeaked out something about being tired before practically running off.  
"Shi- Y/N!" His pain long forgotten, James picked up his cloak and bolted after her.  
He ran out of the library and collided with someone in the hall who definitely was not Y/N.  
The someone let out a triumphant laugh and grabbed James by the arm when he tried to dart off the other direction. "ANOTHER ONE!" Filch's voice cried out gleefully. "I hope you two enjoy detention."  
______________________

"I can't believe the nerve in that boy! We hate each other, I mean I'd literally just stunned him and then he- he just…" Y/N trailed off mid-rant, suddenly caught up in the memories of that night. The softness of his lips… The feeling of his hands on her… Even the memory of how he'd looked was causing butterflies to wreak havoc on her appetite.  
"Y/N?" Claire, a fellow Ravenclaw waved her hand in front of her friend's face in an attempt to snap her from her trance. "Y/N? SOMEONE'S STEALING YOUR BOOKS!"  
"WHAT!" Y/N fell back from the memory and looked around frantically, expecting to see some dark figure making away with her beloved books before realizing she was seated in the great hall, not in her dorm where her books were safely tucked away in her trunk.  
"Yeah I lied. Where did you go just now?" Claire asked. No one knew about the kiss, or at least Y/N hadn't told anyone.  
She wasn't so sure if the same could be said for James because every time she walked past him and his friends they'd all start elbowing him and whispering things which set her anger off in flares, she was so annoyed at his very existence that she'd even been avoiding Remus.  
"Daydreaming, sorry, I didn't get much sleep." Which wasn't completely false, Y/N had had a hard time getting sleep lately.  
"Stress?" Claire said sympathetically.  
"Something like that…" In truth, her dreams had consisted of nothing but James freaking Potter for the last two nights since their kiss.  
Thank Merlin she didn't talk in her sleep.  
"Well, I would suggest we go study tonight but you have your detention." Claire sighed, her sympathy so obviously fake this time. Y/N knew very well how amusing the whole event was for her friend.  
Y/N's first detention, Claire was treating it as if it was some kind of rite of passage. Claire's humored expression was wiped away with one of barely hidden annoyance. "Potter alert." She hummed, nodding her head in the direction of the hall's entrance where, indeed, the Marauders had just walked in.  
Three of the boys made their ways to their seats while one of them stopped to scan the hall. James was searching the place for someone, and Y/N had a sneaky feeling she knew who. Her suspicions were confirmed when Claire squeaked in surprise. "Why is he coming over here?!" She hissed.  
"Merlin knows." Y/N muttered, suddenly finding her half eaten sausage very interesting.  
"Hey, Y/N. Claire." James sidled into the seat beside Y/N, effectively drawing the attention of the students sitting around them.  
Barely hushed whisperings spread through the crowd like fiendfyre and soon enough the small trio had attracted the prying eyes of nearly everyone in the hall.  
Brilliant. Y/N ground her teeth together in annoyance. If there was one thing she hated it was being the center of attention, a trait that came with being in James Potter's company it seemed.  
"Can I help you with something, Potter?" Y/N tried her best to keep her sight fixed on the plate before her but her eyes betrayed her and latched onto him like magnets, drinking in the sight of him. And my was it a sight.  
He had obviously just come inside from the rain because small droplets of water clung to his perfectly messy black hair, Y/N had to physically restrain herself from reaching over and smoothing it down, and a stray droplet of water was slowly making its way down his cheek. His cheeks were flushed and his hazel eyes were alight with an excited gleam. His clothes were ruffled, like he'd thrown them on in a rush that morning.  
"If you couldn't I wouldn't be acknowledging your existence." He replied in a cheery tone and helped himself to a chicken drumstick. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that thing that we have." He pointed toward the door, an unspoken sign for her to follow him. There was no way in hell she was going anywhere alone with him, it'd just be another chance for him to besmooch her.  
"Can't, sorry. I've got to go see Professor Slughorn about the potions O.W.L." She grabbed her bag and walked away as fast as possible, the second she was away from the prying eyes of her fellow classmates she broke out into a run.  
______________________

In her rush to escape the great hall Y/N had run to the other side of the castle before nearly collapsing from the aching stitch in her side. A glance at her watch had determined where she would go next, detention started in ten minutes. A whole hour she would get to spend in a classroom with Professor McGonagall and James and, hopefully, some other people would be there so she could place them between herself and the boy who seemed so desperate for her attention.  
She reached the classroom with plenty of time to spare. As she walked in her heart dropped down to her stomach, not only were there no other students in the room but McGonagall herself wasn't present yet.  
Y/N sat herself in her usual seat in the front of the class, right by the teacher's desk, and settled in for what was, no doubt, going to be a mind-numbingly boring hour.  
"I'll see you after detention! Let ya know how it goes." James called to someone outside the room before the audible sound of the door swinging open marked his arrival. Curse you James Potter. The one time you arrive before the professor.  
The door shut with the usual bang and then James was dumping his bag onto the desk and slouching into the empty seat beside Y/N.  
What a surprise.  
"You do realize there's an entire classroom of empty seats, right?"  
James stared at her as if waiting for her to get to the point. "But none of them are as close to you." He replied in that same damn cheery tone.  
"That's kind of the point." Y/N muttered grouchily as Professor McGonagall finally arrived.  
YN had never been so happy to see the woman.  
"There will be no talking, no whispering, no humming, complete silence. You will write the following lines," A long paragraph appeared on the chalkboard at the wave of her wand. "Any complaining or tomfoolery." Her piercing gaze was fixed on James when she said this who simply smiled back sweetly. God it was cute. "And I will add another hour onto your detention. Understood?"  
We nodded and so began my first ever detention.  
Things did not go so smoothly for long, only ten minutes in and the door burst open. "Professor! Come quick! Sirius Black and his friends have released the owls into the library and they need all the professors to help round them up!" She was up and out of the room the moment the student had mentioned Black's name.  
"And she is McGonegall." Y/N muttered without thinking and was surprised when someone laughed loudly.  
The boy beside her had been so quiet she'd completely forgotten he was there. "I'm going to kill Pads, that owl trick was my idea."  
"If they ruin the library I'm killing you both."  
"Relax, your precious library is safe." James snorted before his face took on a serious expression, something she'd never thought possible. "So is the uh... thing that happened there."  
Y/N felt the traitorous blush bloom across her cheeks when she realized what he was talking about which resulted in a breathtaking smile on James' side, almost as if he was proud of himself. "I appreciate that, I haven't told anyone about that momentary lapse in judgement." James' smile fell. "N-not that I didn't enjoy it! Trust me, I did, it was good, a good kiss. A really good kiss and I definitely wouldn't mind doing it again. I'm not saying I expect it! After all, it was just one kiss. It didn't mean anything, so there's no point in getting my hopes up or anything."  
As he watched her babble on, the smile was slowly reforming. "You're really cute when you do that." He said softly, which only increased the burning in Y/N's cheeks. "I don't know how but in three days I've gone from hating you to something completely different and I guess the real question here is, would you like to go on a date with me?"  
Y/N's mouth fell open in surprise and she quickly shut it again. "Are you… being serious?"  
"No I'm being James and I am asking the girl I like, a lot, if she likes me too."  
"I- yes. Yes I like you and yes I would love to go on a date with you."  
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"Did it work?" Was the first thing Sirius said when James exited the classroom with Y/N following closely behind, the boy frantically motioned for him to shut up but it was too late.  
"Did what work?" Y/N asked suspiciously, eyes darting between the two.  
"Good luck." Sirius whispered to his friend before darting off. What a brilliant friend.  
"James?" Y/N crossed her arms, staring him down inquisitively.  
James breathed out slowly and messed up his hair absentmindedly while he spoke. "Don't get mad… But theguysmayhavereleasedtheowlstogetMcGonagalloutoftheclassroomsothatwecouldbealonepleasedon'thurtme." He winced, as if preparing for Y/N to punch him but, to his absolute surprise, she laughed.  
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End file.
